make Jimmy Choo one of the world's most treasured luxury brands

For such an allegedly laidback hippy chick, artist Julie Verhoeven is certainly au fait with the capitalist idea of marketing oneself. The collection of bags she did for Louis Vuitton seemed like a one off, but next season she's repeating the trick for Mulberry and, even more improbably, adding her signature dreamy squiggle all over tubes of Lancome's Juicy Tubes. Some might sneer but we at Fashion Diary cheer the lady on. Hippy ideals, schmippy, um, schmideals - didn't get Syd Barrett very far, did it? You work it Julie, baby, and take that LVMH shekel.
What does Jimmy Choo smell of? Um, shoes? Presumably not, since a deal has just been inked to create the first Jimmy Choo perfume, scheduled to launch in 2009. Brand founder Tamara Mellon described the venture as part of her vision to make Jimmy Choo one of the world's most treasured luxury brands. We're thinking, eau de champagne with a hint of shoe leather.